Draft a strong contract early on to avoid costly disputes and legal battles later on.

At some point, everyone will need to enter into a contract of some type, whether it's a business agreement, a lease agreement, an employee contract, or a prenuptial agreement.

How do you write a strong contract? What are the essential elements?

How to start:

Find an experienced attorney to draft your strong contract.

Make a list of everything you need in the contract. Your list can be simple bullet points.

Find and read similar contracts. You can find similar contracts in books or online.

Ask your attorney about any issues your concerned about that you'd like to include in the contract, but you're not sure how. Anticipate the unexpected and try to develop contractual terms that can help outline a path to take in the event that an unlikely event will occur.

When you begin writing, start simple:

Find a contract that comes close to what you need. Then begin building and adding to the contract.

Organize the contract by grouping together related ideas. Make the contract flow logically and in an orderly manner.

Editing the contract:

Cut out all the ambiguity. Sometimes, if you try to go into too much detail, all you are doing is making the contract more confusing. Edit the contract. Give every sentence a purpose and make sure they're all clear and concise.

Use the appropriate words. If the document is a contract, call it a contract. If the other party is a seller, call them a seller.

Write the contract in active tense. Do not use passive tense.

If you're a small business or a layman who needs a lease agreement, you may not want your contract to be written in fancy legalize. Ask your attorney to write it for a nonprofessional. This will ensure that the contract is more easily understand by the other party, which reduces the chances that it will be breached. If it's not breached then you won't have to take that party to court.

Be consistent in your writing.

After the contract is completed:

And last, but not least, go over the contract with the other party. Ask if they need any part of it clarified. If you use the contract for multiple clients and come across the same issues repeatedly, you may want to revise the contract.

If you have any questions about drafting contracts, leave us a message.